Monday, July 25, 2016

8008 Wisconsin finally heading to Planning Board in Bethesda

The long-delayed 8008 Wisconsin project is finally going to the Montgomery County Planning Board on Thursday, July 28. It will include 106 luxury condos with 15% affordable units (with overall residential square footage being slightly reduced), and 5793 SF of retail/restaurant space (a slight increase from the original 4500 SF restaurant space).

Developer Toll Brothers City Living is paying a fee to renovate Battery Lane Park in lieu of public space on the 8008 Wisconsin Avenue site. The delay was caused primarily by Montgomery County's insane insistence that original developer Douglas Development hand over a chunk of the land along Wisconsin for a Bus Rapid Transit right-of-way. What made the demand truly insane, is that such a right-of-way cannot be continued all the way down to Bethesda Avenue as the County has claimed. There are multiple buildings in the way that won't be demolished, including the historic Bethesda Theatre (which can't be demolished).

Planners are recommending approval of the project with conditions. Some of those conditions, not surprisingly, involve the land grab along Wisconsin.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

This building is on the west side of Wisconsin, right? The theater is on the east side? Does that mean the county is envisioning the BRT chunk on both sides?

Robert Dyer said...

7:28: Yes, because with the land grab, they'll have 61' from the median on Wisconsin to the Toll property line. And the total width they want is 122' down Wisconsin between Chestnut Street and Bethesda Avenue. They'd have to demolish the theater, and many, many other buildings to get that. It's absolutely preposterous.

Anonymous said...

Has the county planners replied to your inquiry about what they are thinking with your excellent points?

Anonymous said...

@749 - no, what is absolutely preposterous are your idiotic rants about how "moribund" the MoCo economy is but literally are against almost every single new development. You do realize you can't get one without the other right, Birdbrain?

Steve Hell said...

Only the eastern half of MoCo is moribund. Let them eat cake.

Robert Dyer said...

8:38: No clue what you're talking about. I've been in favor of virtually every downtown Bethesda project. In this article, I'm actually sticking up for the landowner against the County.

If you think that building more residential housing alone will help us catch up to the economic development prowess of Northern Virginia and the District, well, that's why we're in this mess, thanks to your bossmen Riemer and Leventhal.

Anonymous said...

8:38am you're making stuff up.
Dyer never said he was against this development. He is raising questions about the BRT right of way. Legitimate to question that.

Anonymous said...

(I was with Dyer...right until he went back onto the irrational "moribund"/Riemer tangent.)

Back OT: I don't understand this BRT alignment easement at all since, as Dyer stated, they can't realistically expect to condemn and bulldoze all those the properties on the east side of Wisconsin. This strikes me as another "car before horse" bureaucratic miscue, like the Shady Grove school bus garage relocation.

Don't think that this type of thing is unique to MoCo though. There's a plethora of Arlington County projects that fall under the same category.

Wrol said...

Correct me if I'm wrong here - don't property owners and developers decide to build residential vs commercial based on their read of the marketplace?

Anonymous said...

Maybe they will single track the BRT through downtown.

Anonymous said...

Dyer believes that all development in southwestern MoCo should occur within the cordon sanitaire of downtown Bethesda, and absolutely nowhere else.

Anonymous said...

So what was the county response / rationale when asked for comment?

Anonymous said...

@ 8:49 PM - And Dyer could also obtain clarification of whether that entire stretch of road is actually proposed to be built to that width. But that would involve talking to a live person.

Robert Dyer said...

4:57: Why would you talk to a person when the document clearly states 122' all the way between Chestnut and Bethesda Avenue?

LL said...

Me thinks when you ask someone "what were you thinking" and don't ask them what they were thinking and just call them an idiot... It's not so productive.

LL said...

Well that was an idiotic typo while sitting in the John. Lol. But you get my point. :)